Between supporters and opponents.. The Central Bank of Iraq prevents Bitcoin trading

The digital currency Bitcoin is shining and approaching its highest levels since the beginning of last May, at about $55,000, and Bitcoin trading is booming. It seems that the sharp rise has reached all alternative digital currencies now. Bitcoin - according to the Central Bank - is a virtual electronic currency that is traded only over the Internet, without a physical presence. It is used for online purchases, supports payment using Bitcoin cards, or may be converted into traditional currencies at times.

The Central Bank of Iraq supports issuing a circular not to use Bitcoin and subjecting those dealing with it to the provisions of the Money Laundering Law, establishing the digital dinar, and digital currency specialist Evan Al-Dobardani opposes the decision of the Central Bank of Iraq. Because he did not provide an alternative to encrypted digital transactions, since many Iraqis invest and trade in encrypted digital currencies, amounting to millions of dollars through global platforms - according to him - which have become cross-government and cross-border as a result of modern technology and economic globalization. Al-Dobardani added to Al-Jazeera Net that countries with major economies such as the United States, China, and the European Union have begun studying the issuance of their own digital currencies by central banks soon. This is why Al-Dobardani calls on the Central Bank of Iraq to plan to issue a digital currency called the “digital dinar” and not an encrypted digital currency, in order to get rid of the paper cash bureaucracy, as well as to reduce the counterfeiting of currencies instead of going to punish those who trade digital currency for the crime of money laundering.

Endorsement The specialist in combating banking money laundering, Abdul Rahman Al-Sheikhli, supports the decision of the Central Bank of Iraq, and tells Al Jazeera Net that digital transactions depend entirely on an advanced electronic system that is subject to the highest standards of cybersecurity, at a time when the Iraqi banking system needs continuous technological modernization. For this decision, the ban was good, according to Al-Sheikhli. There are more than 80 governmental and private banks (commercial and Islamic) in Iraq, in addition to branches of foreign banks that have a fairly good electronic system, according to Al-Sheikhli, but he says that the largest cash flow, which amounts to 80%, is limited to the two governmental “Rafidain and Al-Rashid” banks, which so far deal with paper records in documenting their banking transactions. So how can they deal with digital currencies whose value has moved within a few months - if not weeks - between 15 and 50 thousand dollars per currency? Single digital. Al-Sheikhli identifies ways to successfully deal with digital currency in Iraq by establishing a mechanism to link it with one of the basics of money, such as gold, oil, or any other strategic material, so that it can compete with other virtual currencies that will appear.

Source: Al Jazeera